Luis Alcides Alviarez, 33, was arrested on September 19, 1989, when members of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DIM) showed up at his house asking for his father. That same afternoon his relatives learned of his death in the premises of the DIM in Boleíta Norte, Caracas. The official version indicated that Luis Alcides had hanged himself, but when his relatives received the body, they noticed that he had traces of having received a brutal beating. His body had fractures and burns.

Family members said that Alviarez had no criminal or police record and did not suffer from emotional disorders that could have led him to commit suicide.

DIM director, Herminio Fuenmayor, explained that Luis Alcides was summoned for interrogation by a commission of the San Cristóbal Military Court because of the loss of a check for Bs. 55,000 of the San Cristóbal Military Provision in Táchira state. The victim’s wife worked in that unit and had made complaints of irregularities with embezzlements of up to Bs. 2 million before the Internal Comptroller of the Armed Forces, which caused the dismissal of several officials.

The family presumed that it was an act of revenge caused by the allegations of corruption made by the wife of Luis Alcides Alviarez.

Alviarez was the fourth victim killed by torture recorded by The Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights (Provea) in his first Annual Report on the situation of human rights in Venezuela.

That year, the organization expressed concern about the practice of torture at the hands of military and police officials in the country, and warned that it was not yet a pattern of systematized abuse and widespread use, despite it being a recurrent mechanism to punish detainees.

In September 1989 the country was barely recovering from the terrible wounds caused by the event known as “El Caracazo“, in which hundreds of people were victims of abuse by public force agents, in the middle of the desperate attempt from the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez to crush social unrest.

Provea accounted for a total of 10 cases of torture in its report for the period October 1988 – December 1989, with 4 people killed as a result of the punishments inflicted by police and the military.

31 years later things have changed, and not for the better.

On June 28, 2019, another man kept in the dungeons of the intelligence agency of the Armed Forces had the same fate as Luis Alcides Alviarez.

A Corvette Captain of the Venezuelan Navy, Rafael Acosta Arévalo, was arrested on June 21 of this year accused of being part of a conspiracy to oust Nicolás Maduro from power. On June 22, 2019, the officer’s wife reported his disappearance and declared that she had spoken to him for the last time at 2:00 p.m. the day before, while he was at a meeting in the city of Guatire, in Miranda State. That day, officials from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian Service of National Intelligence (SEBIN) arrested seven people, including active and retired military and police officers. Among those arrested were two retired colonels, an aviation brigadier general, an army lieutenant colonel, two retired commissioners from the Bureau for Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations (CICPC) and the captain, Acosta Arévalo. On June 26, after six days without knowing his whereabouts, the arrest of Acosta Arévalo was announced by the de facto communication and information minister Jorge Rodríguez, who accused three of them, including the captain, of crimes of “Terrorism, conspiracy, and treason”.

On June 28, Acosta Arévalo was transferred by a commission of the DGCIM to the headquarters of the Military Court that was to hold its presentation hearing. The captain arrived in a wheelchair with obvious signs of torture. DGCIM officials prevented the interview with their lawyers from being private. Acosta Arévalo presented with excoriations in the arms, diminished sensitivity in the hands, extreme inflammation in the feet, traces of blood in the nails and injuries in the torso. Acosta Arévalo was also not able to move his hands or feet, to get up or speak, except for accepting the appointment of his defender and asking his lawyer for help.

His condition was so critical that the judge ordered that the captain be transferred to the Army Military Hospital Dr. Vicente Salias Sanoja, located in Fort Tiuna. Hours later it was reported that the detainee had died at night in the hospital. Rafael Acosta Arévalo was tortured in the dungeons of the DGCIM.

To punish and silence

Amid an accelerated deterioration in the quality of life and the extinction of the rule of law, torture in Venezuela has become a widespread and systematic practice that is committed daily in most of the country’s prisons and detention centers, against common prisoners and persons deprived of liberty for political reasons. Torture, as an “exemplary” punishment, has been institutionalized in Venezuela and is part of the repressive repertoire used by the Maduro dictatorship.

In poor communities and prisons throughout the country, the institutional violence exercised by state security corporations is used as a mechanism of social control against excluded and political dissidents. In a generalized context of denial of citizenship, the State response is not produced from an institutional, democratic and restorative dimension of rights, but on the contrary, it is based on the denial and exclusionary logic to crush the demands and exert the terror on the population.

Press monitoring and compilation of complaints received by Provea between January and December 2019, revealed that during the period 40 cases of torture were reported, including 574 individualized victims of this crime against human rights.

This alarming figure constitutes an increase of 526.60% in the number of victims, compared to the 12 months of 2018 when a total of 109 people affected by torture were registered. Besides, it is the highest figure documented by Provea in 31 years of monitoring the right to personal integrity in the country, surpassing the 185 victims registered in 2014. Due to factors such as official opacity, monitoring difficulties arising from the declining independent press, and the fear of the relatives of the victims to report the abuses, the data could be subject to a sub-registry, indicating that an even greater number of cases of torture may have occurred. For the second consecutive year, neither the Public Ministry nor the Ombudsman’s Office published their respective institutional management reports.

Most of the tortured persons were young and poor men, thus maintaining the historical profile of the victims of this crime. 98.60% (566) of the individualized victims were male, while 0.87% (5) were female. In the remaining 0.52% (3) of the gender of the victim could not be identified. The ages of the victims ranged from 8 to 60 years, and most of the injuries inflicted on these people consisted of blows, kicking, electric shocks, crucifixion, rape, insults, among others.

Of the total number of victims documented by Provea between January and September, 426 (74.21%) were persons prosecuted and convicted of committing common crimes; 124 (21.60%) were military officers detained when accused of being part of a conspiracy against the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro; 22 people (3.83%) were civilians arrested for political reasons or in the exercise of the right to peaceful demonstration and 2 (0.34%) other victims’ imprisonment occurred in other circumstances.

116 victims of torture are group together in three cases involving the DGCIM. All of them are military officers accused of conspiracy, terrorism, and treason, and were tortured at the headquarters of the agency in the North Boleíta neighborhood, northeast of Caracas.

Another 250 victims are grouped into two cases in which the CICPC is indicated as responsible. 100 of them in a case involving custodians of the Ministry of Popular Power for Penitentiary Affairs (MPPAP), and another 30 victims in a case involving the National Guard (GNB).

Terror in “The Green Hall”

Prisoners of the “medium-security” area of ​​the “Fenix” Penitentiary Center, in Lara state, were beaten by officials of the Bolivarian National Guard, as punishment for demanding respect for their rights.

A surprise search carried out at dawn on September 15, 2019, by GNB troops and the discovery of an alleged firearm, led to more than 30 inmates being severely beaten by the military. According to the allegations, the prisoners were ordered in a row and seconds later they were surrounded by soldiers who made “the green corridor” with armed officials at both sides of the inmates. The victims reported having received kicks, blows, and insults for more than half an hour.

“A few minutes on, a prisoner, about 55 years old, collapsed, perhaps because of fear and blows. They only make excuses to hit us. This time it was because they got a wooden gun,” said an inmate in statements offered to the regional media.

23 people died between January and December 2019 as a result of torture received by law enforcement officials. Compared to the figure recorded in 2018, there was an increase of 176.92%.

21 of the registered deaths occurred in Preventive Detention Centers under the control of the Bolivarian National Police, CICPC, regional and municipal police. One death is attributable to custodians of the “Fénix” Penitentiary Community in Barquisimeto, Lara state, and another, in the case of Corvette Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, to officials of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence. Diego Molina, former prosecutor of the National Superintendence for the Defense of Socio-Economic Rights (Sundde) was killed in Dungeons of CICPC. He had been arrested on May 10 by officials of the CICPC and transferred to the headquarters of the bureau in Palito Blanco, Maracaibo, where he remained until he died of clear signs of torture: no fingernails, brutally beaten and a detached nipple. The autopsy performed on Molina’s body revealed an Intestinal Hypovolemic Shock, with hemorrhage in the upper part of the intestine. His relatives took off to the media demanding justice.

Who is responsible for torture in Venezuela

After three years, the CICPC once again tops the shameful list of torturers in Venezuela.

In 2013 and 2014, the National Guard led the statistics in coincidence with two periods of high conflict in which that component of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces played a leading role. For 2015, the CICPC resumed its historic leadership in the framework of the execution of the People’s Liberation Operation (PLO) and the reduction of social conflict in the country.

For 2016, the Army was at the forefront as the most torturing agency when it was incorporated into the second phase of the PLO. For 2017 and 2018, the Bolivarian National Police and the DGCIM, respectively, accounted for the largest number of cases in coincidence with the crush of the popular rebellions, and the role in the persecution and harassment against military personnel accused of conspiracies and coup attempts.

The CICPC closed 2019 with 10 complaints that involve it in the commission of torture against 259 people. This figure places the agency responsible for 45.12% of the total cases registered in the period.

Crucified and electrocuted in the DGCIM

Relatives of 24 sergeants of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) who rose against the regime in Cotiza on January 21, denounced that the officers were crucified and electrocuted at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), in North Boleíta.

Sergeant Luis Bandres Figueroa’s wife reported that his partner was missing for eight days. She only knew that he had surrendered to the DGCIM and that he was kept in isolation. During the days of his forced disappearance, Bandres remained handcuffed and hung from his hands.

“My husband is full of blood clots. He was electrocuted so much that he defecated several times over. Every time he entered the torture room he was rendered unconscious. He does not remember a day that he was consciously aware of it, ”said Sandra Hernández, wife of the military.

The DGCIM was in second place accumulating 10 cases involving 124 victims of torture (21.60%), a considerable increase of 165% in the number of people affected since this security agency registered 49 more victims than in 2018. DGCIM headquarters became the new torture center against detainees for political reasons in the country. At least 199 cases have been registered on that premises between January 2018 and September 2019. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights requested a visit to these spaces to verify the conditions of detention and the treatment given to the arrested, but the request was denied.

The penitentiary custodians attached to the Ministry of Correctional Affairs were placed in third place with three cases involving 115 victims (20.03%) in events that occurred in the “Fénix” Penitentiary Community in Lara state; the Barcelona Model Jail in Anzoátegui; and the Western Prison Center in Táchira. The Bolivarian National Guard was said to have tortured 48 people (8.36%), most of them detained in the context of demonstrations and inmates of the “Fénix” Penitentiary Community.

The highest number of victims was concentrated in Carabobo state, with 201 tortured persons (35.01%), the majority at the premises of the CICPC in Valencia. It is followed by Miranda state with 183 victims (31.88%), 124 of them tortured at the DGCIM headquarters in North Boleíta. Anzoátegui ranked third with 103 victims (17.94%), a large number of them tortured at the Agro productive Prison Center in Barcelona and the CICPC premises in El Tigre.

Promoting impunity

Three situations that occurred in 2019 illustrate the way impunity is favored in today’s Venezuela:

– The headquarters of the CICPC Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Division, located in El Hatillo, Miranda state, made news at least three times in the first half of 2019.

On May 21, the relatives of the people held in that compound went to the headquarters of the Public Ministry in Parque Carabobo, Caracas, to denounce the torture inflicted against more than 50 prisoners. The following day, on May 22, the General Director of the organization, Douglas Rico, announced the intervention of the Division after a video was released in which a detainee was being tortured in the courtyards of the premises. The woman was crucified and hanged to a workout machine while being recorded by the other prisoners who disseminated the video.

The highest authority of the CICPC described what happened as “alleged police malpractice,” and announced that it would be relentless with “all those who insult and transgress the good work of the CICPC.” By relativizing what happened and not describing it as torture, the senior official favored impunity. Until now, the existence of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the Ombudsman’s Office to punish those responsible for the facts reported remains unknown.

The first intervention of the Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Division took place on April 22, after learning that officials assigned to that unit had arrested and tortured three officials of the Special Action Force (FAES) of the Bolivarian National Police, involved in the alleged extortion of a merchant. The members of the FAES, two men and one woman, were arrested during an operation carried out by the CICPC agents. During their stay in the dungeons of El Hatillo they were beaten, electrocuted and subjected to sexual abuse by their custodians. On this occasion, the investigation was conducted by the Public Ministry and the event was described as an act of torture.

– In both his former constitutional administration and current de facto government, Nicolás Maduro has sent tireless messages of support to those who sustain his dictatorship through repression and human rights abuses. In May of 2019 Gustavo González López, a hard-line military man trained at the School of The Americas was reappointed as head of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN). González López had been removed from office after the alleged murder by torture of opposition Member of Council Fernando Albán, who was in the custody of the police force. During the first term of the officer at the head of the organization, there were numerous cases of torture and, like Albán, Rodolfo González and Carlos Andrés García died at the headquarters of the police force of Plaza Venezuela, in Caracas, and San Fernando de Apure.

– On September 24, the 36th Court of Control of the Caracas Metropolitan Area, sentenced Ascanio Antonio Tarascio and Estiben Zárate, officials of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), to six years and eight months in prison, for their involvement in the murder of the Navy Corvette Captain, Rafael Acosta Arévalo. The officials had been charged with the crime of pre-intentional homicide and will serve their brief sentence at the headquarters of the DGCIM.

The sentence is insufficient and does not establish direct responsibilities related to the torture and cruel treatment suffered by Acosta Arévalo in June. With the decision, the de facto government tried to evade its responsibility in another case of murder by torture, a crime punishable by a penalty ranging from 15 to 25 years in prison according to the Special Law to Prevent and Punish Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatments effective since July 2013. The decision of the 36th Court of Control stimulates the practice of torture by police and military agencies and reaffirms that an institutional structure is consolidated in Venezuela to favor the abuse of power, the violation of human rights, and impunity.

A complex humanitarian emergency scenario, the absence of democratic institutions, and systematic human rights abuses have condemned Venezuelans to extremely precarious living conditions. Since May 2016, Venezuela has been subject to a continued and unconstitutionally extended “State of Exception and Economic Emergency,” which provided the Maduro dictatorship with a “legality” in parallel to the Constitution, establishing the subordination of citizen rights to the interests of the State and national security, and the indefinite suspension of constitutional guarantees for the rights to free association, peaceful assembly, expression, information, and demonstration. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights identified a widespread and systematic pattern by Maduro’s administration, aimed at crushing dissent and social unrest. Massive and systematic human rights violations reveal the existence of state policies or plans aimed at promoting, tolerating and covering up the commission of abuses against citizen guarantees through practices aimed at causing terror in the population.

In Maduro’s Venezuela, the power of the State is used to violate the rights that it is supposed to respect and guarantee. Impunity is favored with the absence of investigation, punishment, and accountability mechanisms. The construction of a legal framework that favors the execution of crimes against human rights and the cover-up and acquittal of those responsible, added to the symbolic and real encouragement that the perpetrators receive from the high power, keep an endless spiral of abuse that will continue to charge victims if not arrested on time.

Official Source: Provea